The present invention relates in general to the field of computers and similar technologies, and in particular to instant messaging applications.
Instant messaging has become a primary method of communication in the corporate world, as well as the social world. As a person's use of instant messaging increases, that person has to manage a greater number of instant messaging sessions. Consider the situation in a corporate setting where an employee has developed a reputation within the organization as being a very dependable source of advice and information. This employee relies on an instant messaging application to communicate with coworkers (or customers). As the employee becomes more popular, the employee receives an increasing number of instant messages from coworkers. It takes the employee longer and longer to reply to a given message, since the employee now has more messages to respond to. Eventually, some messages may not be responded to at all.
While the employee is very busy responding to all of the instant messages, coworkers sit and wait for a response, unaware of the reasons for the delay or how long the wait will be. This can lead to feelings of frustration and neglect on the part of the person waiting for a response. The employee may not be able to log out of the instant messaging program, or set the user status to “busy” or “unavailable”, because the employee must be available to respond to instant messages from certain “key” senders, such as a boss, a high-ranking corporate official or a preferred customer. The employee's reputation as a dependable source of information and the resulting popularity has paradoxically caused the employee to become a less dependable source of information.